Just One Of Those Things (B section)

wim

I'd like to recruit djangobooks detectives to investigate a question ? is there any band that modulated up a minor third in the B section of this tune, earlier than Django's recording? They play it in F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6hsUrAoAAQ In the B section they go to Ab (most bands and charts go to Eb). The clarinet plays the melody a fourth higher than usual here.

It's a Cole Porter tune from 1935, Django's recording is 12 years later in 1947. Earliest recorded version I could find https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvWyhNX3pLc <-- which is a fabulous arrangement by the way, love the ascending thing going on in the harmony there, and all the little details the string section is adding.

I'm interested to know if there was some other version they were familiar with, or going to Ab was a novelty from this band, and whether it was intentional or just a goof up (perhaps somebody called the tune spontaneously and they were figuring it out on the spot). Maybe a longshot, for any woodwind players: is there some technical reason the bridge melody doesn't work well for clarinet in that key?

(broken out from http://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/17370/ascending-lick/p2 so as not to sidetrack that discussion)

Buco

Sorry for clicking the funny thingy but it did make me laugh. Man your mind works in funny ways. What made even think of that?

wim

Well when learning a tune I've found something which helps me to actually retain it is taking the extra time to figure out how each note in the melody is relating to the chord underneath. Go through the melody note by note and work out if it's a third, a fifth, a flat 9, whatever. It's much easier when the tune has lyrics (so you can associate the particular words with particular intervals).

When I do that, I can remember the tune for years and years, and transpose it into other keys. When I didn't do that, I could only play it confidently in the key I learned it in, and I'm usually gonna forget the tune in a few months unless I'm gigging with it regularly.

So for this particular tune, I always got confused in the B section. It's a tune that I enjoy but would always kind of fake my way through, and only now I realized why - the chords from the Django version are not matching with the melody that's lingering in my head from all the recorded versions with vocals. The tricky thing is, that the Ab modulation that Django version does actually sounds good aswell! It's just incompatible with the Cole Porter changes.

Does that answer our question?

Buco

Well I'm glad I asked. Yes, thank you! I got a lesson out of it too. First inkling would tell me that's a lot of information to retain. I'll give it a shot on something simple. When I put in the effort to learn a bunch of tunes I used the numbers system where I had trouble remembering.

So if this tune is called in a jam people usually play these Django changes?

Buco

and I see what you mean. The version I was mostly familiar with is this one by Scaramouche Jazz Manouche and they go a whole step down in the B section when Django as you say goes a minor third up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D6pZof8mms

wim

It's one of those tunes that falls apart in the B section when called in a jam ? Other tunes that fall apart in the B section: R Vingt 6, Danube (Anniversary Song), Fleche d'Or ..

Pompe_ojisan

The other version Django recorded a few months later, with the same musicians, uses the same chords, so this must have been deliberate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgcHuh9kqaE&feature=emb_logo

Also I remember an old thread on the French forum, where one of the poster analyzes the B and defends the view that this is a case of Django improving on the original. Tout en Francais of course. https://guitarejazzmanouche.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31110

No hard evidence though, unless somebody can dig out some pre-47 version...

wim

The thread from the French forums is very entertaining, thank you! Du coup Rostaing pour un peu en avale son bâton de réglisse et il chiffonne vite fait sa belle grille en Eb soigneusement préparée pour l'occasion. ?

So Groucho (whoever is) thinks it's a deliberate improvement. Interesting

spatzo

Yes I think Django clearly decided to harmonize the tune this way